Brewster B-239 Buffalo – Karhunen, Finnish Air Force

MAGLG27 is this decent 1/72 scale model from DeAgostini of the Brewster B-239 Buffalo in Finnish Air Force livery, as flown by ace pilot Jorma Karhunen. Perfect accompaniment to the Corgi range of 1/72 WW2 fighters. Has to be seen to be appreciated. Complete with optional undercarriage positions and stand in re-useable box packaging. The only 1/72 scale diecast model of this plane available.

Jorma Karhunen (17 March 1913 – 21 January 2002) was a Finnish Air Force ace. He scored 31.5 kills in World War II; 25.5 of his air victories were achieved while flying the Brewster B-239 Buffalo.

The Brewster B-239 (De Navalised F2A) Buffalo is an American fighter aircraft which saw service early in World War II. Designed and built by the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation, it was one of the first U.S. monoplanes with an arrestor hook and other modifications for aircraft carriers. The Buffalo won a competition against the Grumman F4F Wildcat in 1939 to become the U.S. Navy’s first monoplane fighter aircraft. Although superior to the Grumman F3F biplane it replaced, and the early F4Fs, the Buffalo was largely obsolete when the United States entered the war, being unstable and overweight, especially when compared to the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero.

Several nations, including Finland, Belgium, Britain and the Netherlands, ordered the Buffalo. The Finns were the most successful with their Buffalos, flying them in combat against early Soviet fighters with excellent results. During the Continuation War of 1941–1944, the B-239s operated by the Finnish Air Force proved capable of engaging and destroying most types of Soviet fighter aircraft operating against Finland at that time and achieving in the first phase of that conflict 32 Soviet aircraft shot down for every B-239 lost, and producing 36 Buffalo “aces”.